Alfred Hitchcock’s #1 Fear Is Officially the Weirdest Thing You’ll Learn Today

Alfred Hitchcock knew what you feared and how to play with those fears to deliver some of Hollywood’s most iconic films. He even created new fears, like the banality of taking a shower, instantly becoming a horrifying prospect for thousands after Psycho in 1960. But even the “Master of Suspense” had his own fears, some of which he based films around. For example, after his father arranged for a London bobby to lock him in a cell at 11, Hitchcock developed a fear of police officers, driving films like North by Northwest and The 39 Steps, where innocent men are wrongfully accused and chased by authorities.

So it would be safe to assume that we can make an educated guess about the one thing that scared Hitchcock above all others, based on the films he made. Vertigo would suggest that Hitchcock had a paralyzing fear of heights, which he did, but that’s not it. A fear of showers? No, but it sure as all hell made Janet Leigh fear them the rest of her life. And he didn’t have ornithophobia, which presumably would have sparked The Birds, but that’s much closer to the truth. See, the one thing that frightened Hitchcock the most is available at your local grocery store, in a package with eleven others like it: the lowly egg.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Unexpected Phobia: A Deep Fear of Eggs

That’s right, eggs. The man who brought you Rear Window couldn’t walk past the dairy aisle. In 1963, Hitchcock explained his ovophobia to Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci (per The Telegraph). “I’m frightened of eggs. Worse than frightened — they revolt me. That white round thing without any holes, and when you break it, inside there’s that yellow thing, round, without any holes… Brr!” To Hitchcock, an egg was all surface, or all innards. Easily cracked, yet strangely impenetrable. “Have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid?” he asked Fallaci.

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Then he adds a little more detail, detail that is pure Hitchcock-ian: “Blood is jolly, red. But egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I’ve never tasted it.” No one in the history of ever has referred to blood as being “jolly,” and fewer still would prefer to see blood instead of an egg yolk. What does that mean for Hitchcock? Using Psycho as an example, Hitchcock would have been fine seeing Norman as Mrs. Bates with blood dripping from his knife, delighted even. But if Norman is making a cake? He’s out of there.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Other Fear Had a Strange Irony

Ironically, despite his fear of eggs, he had no fear of the feathered beasts that came from them. “I can look at a corpse chopped to bits without batting an eyelid, but I can’t bear the sight of a dead bird,” he tells Fallaci, adding, “Too heartrending. I can’t even bear to see them suffer, birds, or get tired.” The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is fine, Dumb and Dumber, not so much. Furthermore, not only did he have the highest consideration for birds, Hitchcock believed that the birds of The Birds were justified, saying, “For hundreds of centuries, birds have been persecuted by men, killed, put in the pot, in the oven, on the spit, used for writing pens, feathers for hats, turned into bloodcurdling stuffed ornaments… Such infamy deserves exemplary punishment.”

But Hitchcock did have another fear that seems almost karmic: his own films. Per The Telegraph, he told Fallaci, “I never go to see them. I don’t know how people can bear to watch my movies.” As he listed his many other terrors, Fallaci retorted, “That’s rather illogical, Mr Hitchcock. Come to that, your movies are illogical, too. From the logical point of view, not one of them can stand inspection.” Having built his career on irrational fear, one can imagine the smirk Hitchcock must have had, as he said, “Agreed, but what is logic? There’s nothing more stupid than logic.” Except maybe fearing an omelet.